The present invention relates to illuminated handbags and in particular to a method of making a lady's illuminated handbag.
It has been suggested in the past to provide ladies' handbags, pocketbooks or purses with an illuminating light so that when the handbag is opened the lady can see the contents in her handbag and can easily find a door or car key, or the like, therein. Handbags, pocketbooks and purses are referred to interchangeably herein to mean those containers normally carried by ladies for keeping miscellaneous items that may be needed by the lady, such as money, credit cards, house and car keys, makeup, and the like. One prior art lighted handbag has been suggested by the present inventor, U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,658 for LADIES' PURSE LIGHT WITH MAGNETIC SWITCH in which a magnetic switch is utilized to automatically turn the light inside the pocketbook on when the pocketbook is opened and off when it is closed. It has also been suggested in the past to provide a lighting mechanism for a handbag which can be easily removed from the handbag, and it has also been suggested to provide a pocketbook in which the fastening catch for closing the bag has been devised as a slide switch for switching an electric light on and off.
Finally, it has been suggested to provide a lady's handbag with a flashlight which broadly diffuses light for illuminating the inside of a lady's purse while having a removable portion for providing a narrow light beam such as may be needed to locate a keyhole. One of the most common types of handbags provided in today's market is closed by having a flap connected to, or forming part of one side of the handbag and which may be pulled across the other side of the handbag and latched with a clasp to close the bag. The clasp typically will have an elongated member attached perpendicular to a rotatable shaft connected to the outside of the handbag and the flap will have an elongated slot adapted to receive the clasp member which is then rotated to latch the bag closed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,609,341 by the present inventor provides an illuminating handbag having a handbag using a flap and clasp type closing mechanism with an illuminating lamp inside in which a rotatable clasp may be used to switch the lamp on and off. The present invention is an improvement over this prior art patent in providing a simplified method of manufacturing an illuminated handbag of this type and adapting it to a great variety of different types of handbags during manufacture.
An illuminating handbag apparatus having a walk-along light is illustrated in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,800,134 which provides illumination for the interior of a handbag actuated by a magnetic switch in which the illuminating lamp can be shifted to the outside of the handbag.